FREE Endangered Animals Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Phonics Instant Download)

Today, April 22, is Earth Day. But this free endangered animals do-a-dot printable can be used year round. Every day should be Earth Day, and endangered animals need our help throughout the year. As usual, the free “e” for endangered animals do-a-dot phonics printable is an instant download and super easy to prepare!

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Note: Be sure to read to the bottom of the post where you’ll find lots of ideas for using do-a-dot printables along with at least one free do-a-dot printable for each letter of the alphabet!

Montessori-Inspired Printables at Living Montessori Now

My daughter, Chrissy (a former Montessori child), and I are partnering to bring you a series of Montessori-inspired printables. The printables are typically themed and use a number of Montessori principles (although you don’t need to be a Montessori teacher or homeschooler to use them):

• They use isolation of quality.
• They use photographs or realistic images to emphasize reality. Whenever I can, I’ll tell you the specific name of the object or animal featured on the credits page. This month’s do-a-dot printable shows a a number of endangered animals (ones that can be found in the Safari Ltd. Endangered Species Land TOOB).
• They typically use traditional Montessori colors such as red for consonants and blue for vowels.
• They use lowercase letters, which are what we introduce letter sounds with in Montessori education. (Children tend to pick up the uppercase letters without being introduced if they’re introduced to the lowercase letter sounds.)
• They often feature themed printable versions of Montessori materials.

Free Endangered Animals Do-a-Dot Phonics Printable

To download the endangered animals do-a-dot phonics printable, click here and then click on the file image in the upper right corner of the PDF to save to your computer (just choose where you want it saved).

Montessori-Inspired Activities Using the Endangered Animals Do-a-Dot Printable

Tray with Endangered Animals Do-a-Dot Printable and Panda Good Luck Minis Patterns

Note: This is just one example of how you can use the do-a-dot printables. There are many ways to use our do-a-dot printables. Scroll down to see examples from previous posts. Just choose an activity that’s appropriate for your child’s age and skill level.

I used a Multicraft tray, Safari Ltd. Good Luck Minis, and an easel with one of the “e” for endangered animals font cards. I’ve started putting out triangular grip pencils for my 3-year-old grandkids for any writing or drawing they want to do. Triangular grip pencils are a great way to help young children develop the proper pencil. grip.

If you’d like to use a variety of endangered animals, you can find many Good Luck Minis on Amazon. If you’d like one specific type of Good Luck Mini, such as the pandas shown here, you’ll find sets of 10 identical Good Luck Minis at Alison’s Montessori. (Note: You can see another way I’ve used these same pandas in my post with free panda printables and Montessori-inspired panda activities.)

You can use a variety of tools for transfer activities, such as quick sticks, sugar tongs, or toast tongs. (Note: With toddlers, be extra careful to avoid leaving out materials, such as pom poms or glass gems, that could be a choking hazard. I typically keep small objects up out of reach for toddlers and get them out when I’m directly supervising their work.)

You can add erasable crayons or markers to a laminated page for preschoolers to work on tracing skills. I don’t have my grandkids trace letters or numbers before age 3 except with their fingers. Above age 3, I place colored pencils on the tray for children who are ready for tracing work. If you laminate your printable, you can use an erasable crayon like the Melissa & Doug Learning Mat Crayons or Crayola Erasable Crayons. If your page isn’t laminated, you could add a pencil or colored pencils. I often do that. If you only have a 2-year-old or other young preschooler who’s not ready to write letters, you can just leave off the crayon or pencils.

Scroll down to see lots of ideas for using our do-a-dot printables for a variety of ages and themes.

/E/ for Endangered Animals with Salt Writing Tray and Panda Good Luck Minis Pattern

This type of activity is wonderful for fine-motor development, increasing attention span, and reinforcing letter sounds. My variation today also works on pattern identification.

I just used 11 of the mini pandas and showed my  younger granddaughter, Sophia, how to place the pandas on every other dot to have them walk around the letter. It was another way to focus on creating patterns. Here, we did one dot on, one dot off….

Sophia is just 3 years old, so I don’t typically have her  do structured writing activities with pencils. We typically trace letters on sandpaper letters, wooden tracing boards, or our salt tray.

For toddlers, I usually use the do-a-dot printables for vocabulary, hearing the beginning sound of a word, and fine-motor skills. Generally, with toddlers, I’ll just focus on the /ĕ/ sound at the beginning of “endangered.” 

For a phonics lesson with young toddlers, I might casually say that endangered starts with /ĕ/ (the sound, not the letter name). This is just to introduce hearing the phonetic sound. I don’t focus on the letter “e,” although I use the printable that we already have available. We often focus on the child hearing the beginning sound by saying something like, “Endangered, /ĕ/, endangered.”

For young children in general, I might say that endangered means that some animals are in danger of becoming extinct or disappearing forever if we don’t take special care of them. We also read a variety of books about endangered animals to help with any endangered animal activities. I adapt the words in many books for my younger grandkids. Behind Sophia, you’ll see:

• S is for Save the Planet
• P is for Pangolin: An Alphabet of Obscure, Endangered & Underappreciated Animals
• What’s the Difference? An Endangered Animal Subtraction Story
• Mission Panda Rescue (This is a gorgeous book, but it’s definitely designed for older kids. I just recommend it for younger ones if you have an older sibling and adapt the text.

You can see more of our endangered animal books in my post with free endangered animal printables and Montessori-inspired endangered animal activities.

Both of my 3-year-old grandkids love working with sandpaper letters and letter sounds. With preschoolers who are learning their letter sounds, we follow the order shown in this post along with adding the featured letter. I don’t worry about going out of order for the monthly theme.

If you want to know more about how to introduce the /ĕ/ sound, check out my post on how to teach letter sounds using Montessori principles.

I only use printables with toddlers and young preschoolers that can be used for hands-on work, such as do-a-dot work, scissor cutting (cutting strips), or another type of printable that can be made into a manipulative. Printables when used with manipulatives are great for fine-motor development, work on important skills, and fit with the hands-on activities that are developmentally appropriate for toddlers.

I focused on the proper formation of the letter “e by tracing it in the salt tray shown here. (You can read about our salt tray here.) I help guide Sophia’s hand once to show how to form the letter. Later, I let her make whatever designs she wishes. I also let her play with the animals from the Safari Ltd. Endangered Species Land TOOB in the salt tray!

If you would like help with introducing phonetic sounds, introducing objects with sounds, or beginning phonics in general, check out my DIY Beginning Montessori Phonics with Preschoolers.

For older children who already know their letter sounds but still enjoy do-a-dot work, I add the print movable alphabet word building, phonogram work, another hands-on activity to go with the do-a-dot work, and/or cursive movable alphabet and word analysis work. (Note: These examples have more than one type of additional activity, which I like for older children.)

As always, adapt your presentations for your unique child!

More Earth Day (Earth Day Every Day) Resources

Free Endangered Animal Printables and Montessori-Inspired Endangered Animal Activities

Free Endangered Animal Songs and Educational Videos {Save the Animals}

• Free Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Printables and Activities for a Montessori-Inspired Earth Day Unit
• Free Recycling Printables and Montessori-Inspired Recycling Activities
• Free Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Phonics Instant Download)
• Free 3-Part Recycle Cards
• Montessori-Inspired Earth Day Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Activities for Earth Day Every Day
• More Montessori-Inspired Earth Day Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Lorax Activities
• Free Earth Day Printables and Montessori-Inspired Earth Day Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Arbor Day Activities
• Free Recycling Cutting Strips (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Free Recycling Do-a-Dot Printable (Montessori-Inspired Instant Download)
• Free Conservation Songs for Home or School {Character Education Resources}
• Free Earth Day Songs and Rhymes for Circle Time
• Free Tree Printables and Montessori-Inspired Tree Activities
• Thank You for Planet Earth (or Thank You, Planet Earth) Mindfulness Cards and Booklet
• Kids’ Earth Day Every Day Pinterest Board

 

Montessori-Inspired Endangered Animal Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).

Free Do-a-Dot Printables and Ideas for Using Them

I love the versatility of do-a-dot printables! If you’re doing a month-long theme, you could easily change out the type of do-a-dot activity weekly to add interest. Here are four ideas of hands-on activities for any of our do-a-dot printables from my frog do-a-dot printable post (see post for details and materials used).

Just click on an image to go to the post with the related free printable!

Note: I’ve arranged the following gallery in alphabetical order, although some posts have two do-a-dot printables (and two different letters). You’ll find at least one free do-a-dot printable for each letter of the alphabet!

Also, I don’t introduce letters in alphabetical order. You can find out the order in which I introduce letter sounds here. I deviate from that order for our unit studies, though, and focus on a letter that’s simply related to our unit. That’s in addition to our other letter work.

You can see all our free do-a-dot printables with the latest at the top here.

For complete themed alphabet do-a-dot packs, see our Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack, Spanish Animal Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack, and Healthy Food Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pack available for purchase in the Living Montessori Now shop.

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

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